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Fill the spiritual gap
Although the details are not all worked out yet, Christian churches and other faith groups in Abbotsford have offered to provide up to $25,000 toward hiring a part-time chaplain/spiritual care practitioner at Abbotsford Hospital. This would partially fill the gap left after Fraser Health Authority eliminated a dozen spiritual care practitioner positions as a cost-cutting measure last fall. Fraser Health is also planning to hire a part-time regional spiritual educator to train volunteers to take over some of the spiritual care.
Presbyterian minister Hans Kouwenberg, who has taken a leading role in organizing the response of the faith community, said Fraser Health has also agreed to reinstate the practice of asking patients for their spiritual preferences. This would help the volunteers connect to patients who want their help.
A super fixer-upper
Cornerstone Seventh Day Adventist Church in Coquitlam is seeking nominees to receive its 2010 home makeover. The nominated family must live in the Tri-Cities area, have a significant need and preferably have children. The makeover is done free of charge by a team of skilled and unskilled volunteers, using donations of materials and labour by local businesses and contractors. This is the fourth year the church is offering this service.
Contact: www.cornerstonehometeam.org.
Already there
The city of Surrey took a cooperative approach to the disaster response in Haiti. Mayor Dianne Watts instructed firefighters to accept donations of non-perishable food items at fire halls and launched a food drive among city hall staff. The food was then donated to Pacific Community Church, which already had two members working in Haiti with Heart to Heart Haiti, a mission based in Abbotsford. The food aid is being funnelled to that mission’s work in a town called Grand Goave.
Heart to Heart Haiti planned to distribute 600 tons of food aid in the weeks following the January 12 earthquake.
Surrey has also offered to send city planning and engineering staff to Haiti to assist in reconstruction.
Hair today . . .
 | | TWU’s Kaleigh Henry experiences hair loss. |
Trinity Western University women’s soccer midfielder Kaleigh Henry (pictured) had her hair cut off February 17, Ash Wednesday, to raise funds for the Vancouver Women’s Shelter and for her mission’s trip with the TWU women’s soccer team to Paraguay this May.
In addition, she donated her hair to the Little Princess Trust, a non-profit organization which makes wigs for young girls undergoing chemotherapy. The soccer team will be playing soccer against Paraguayan teams and helping out in orphanages, soccer camps for impoverished children and soup kitchens.
Need some smooth stones
World Vision is offering seminar called ‘Taking Down the Goliaths: Releasing the Church for Christian Advocacy,’ from 10 am to 12:30 pm April 6 at the Best Western Coquitlam Inn.
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World Vision staff Doug Blackburn and Amboka Wameyo will teach the biblical foundations for advocacy, tools to build a culture of justice in a congregation, key issues being addressed by the G8 countries and information on current advocacy campaigns.
Info: www.worldvision.ca/events
Rocks are relevant
The Creation Science Association of B.C. is presenting two lectures by Greg Rutherford, a mathematics and physics instructor from Okanagan College. He will speak on ‘Creation is Relevant’ March 13, 7:30 pm, at Westminster Bible Chapel in Burnaby and ‘Dating Rocks and Fossils’, March 20, 7 pm, at Newton Fellowship Church in Surrey.
Not shrouded in secrecy
John Iannone of Orlando, Florida will be speaking on ‘The History, Science & Significance of the Shroud of Turin’ March 10 – 13 at St. Thomas More Collegiate, 7450 – 12 Avenue, in Burnaby. The lecture series is sponsored by the school and by Our Lady of Mercy Church. Info: 604.521.1801.
The play next door
The Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver is presenting Paradise Garden March 11 to April 11 at the Stanley Theatre. The play concerns the romance between a free-spirited boy named Day and a career-driven intellectual named Layla who lives next door.
The play stars and was written by Lucia Frangione, who has written 20 plays – including Holy Mo and Cariboo Magi, produced by Pacific Theatre.
Orphan Aid
The Orphan Aid Thrift Store has been operating at 6th and Edmonds Street in Burnaby since 2007.
About 60 volunteers, up to age 92, keep the store open six days a week.
The proceeds support Buseko Children’s Home and a school called Grace Academy in Zambia, both of which are operated by the Seeds of Hope ministry to serve children with HIV/AIDS.
Right now Seeds of Hope is expanding the school and building a high school.
Word and Spirit
R.T. Kendall, who has authored numerous bestselling books, is conducting ‘Word, Spirit and Power’ conferences throughout North America. His message is that the church needs expository preaching and sound doctrine but also the power of the Holy Spirit that was manifested in the book of Acts, including signs, wonders and miracles. He will be speaking March 25 – 27 at the Ramada Plaza & Conference Centre in Abbotsford. Info: 800.409.3093 or StreamsCanada.com.
Carin’ churches
Seven Anglican churches and one United church in North Vancouver are sponsoring two young families from Burma to come to Canada. The families are Karen people, an ethnic minority subject to persecution for decades; both families had been living in a refugee camp on the Burma/Thailand border for over 10 years.
– JC
March 2010
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